Raffles Junior College

Name	Raffles Junior College
Established	1982
School Code	0704
Address	10 Bishan Street 21 Singapore 574013
Country	Singapore
Town	Bishan
Type	Independent, Full Day
Students	Mixed
Levels	JC Year 1 and 2
Colours	Green Black White
Motto	Auspicium Melioris Aevi
Newspaper	Rafflesian Outlook
Yearbook	The Rafflesian
Distinctions	School Distinction Award 2004-2008
Website	Official RJC Website (http://www.rjc.edu.sg)

Raffles Junior College (abbr. RJC, or RJ as most people call it) is a junior college in Singapore offering a two-year course for students. It is located in Bishan beside the campus of Raffles Institution. It consistently ranked top among Singaporean junior colleges, until the ranking of junior colleges was discontinued in 2004. At least 95% of RJC graduates attend university, many of them on scholarships.

The current Principal of the school is Mr Winston Hodge.

History

RJC was formed in 1982 to provide Pre-University classes which were then discontinued in Raffles Institution (RI), in keeping with national trends. Since then, it has excelled in both academic and non-academic fields, developing "fine traditions and excellent spirit". There is a distinct school spirit, termed the Rafflesian Spirit, which bonds Rafflesians near and far, past and present, in common purpose and determination. It is as yet unknown if the Spirit is indeed an actual spirit, or merely a metaphorical one.

In the 2004 GCE 'A' Level Examination, Raffles Junior College has obtained the best results in 24 years since its establishment, with 75.5% of the class of 2004 scoring 3 or 4 'A' Level Distinctions.

On 29 December, 2004, RJC held its moving ceremony from its previous Mount Sinai campus to Bishan Street beside RI, enlisting the help of the RI student population to line the pavement leading to the new campus, strengthening the bonds between the two schools. The two schools now run open concept campuses, where no fence separates the two campuses. Facilities between the schools are shared in terms of Co-Curriculum Activities, and students of both schools may access both campuses. Both schools also share a common driveway with vehicles going to both schools entering through the RI gate and exiting through the RJC gate.

The college has since turned independent from its former government school status after the move to Bishan.

College anthem

The College Anthem of RJC is the same as the Institution Anthem of Raffles Institution (RI). It was written by E W Jesudason (Principal of RI 1963–1966), and retained by RJC since it was born from the bosom of RI.

Affiliation

RJC is affiliated to Raffles Institution (RI) and Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) (RGS). It shares its school anthem, school crest and much of its school culture with RI. The uniform for RJC boys is largely similar to that of RI boys, with the main differences lying in the pleat at the back of the shirt, the single fold at the end of the sleeves, pleats in the long pants and the thickness of the material of the shirt. RJC girls wear a white blouse with a green pleated skirt. The school badge, however, is marginally taller than the RI badge. In addition, a third of its 2001 intake was from RI and a quarter from RGS. Still, the students generally come from diverse backgrounds.

RJC is currently involved in the Raffles Programme (RP), an Integrated Programme which takes students all the way from Secondary 1 to JC2, skipping the GCE 'O' Level Examinations. Students spend the first four years in RI or RGS, and the last two years in RJC.

When the students of the first batch of RP enter RJC in 2006, its enrolment would increase from 2150 to 2850. Most of the students would then be from RI and RGS, who will gain direct admission to RJC.

Faculty and house system

In May 2005, RJC introduced the house system which replaced its faculty system. This was due to the large imbalance of people taking different subject combinations in recent years. For example, Engineering and Arts Faculties combined was smaller than the Medicine Faculty. Other reasons include the pioneer batch of students in the Raffles Programme entering RJC in 2006, the major change in the Singapore junior college education system from 2006 which does not allow students to take "triple science" (Biology, Chemistry and Physics), as well as the fact that Computing is no longer offered as a subject. These are the faculties from the old system that have ceased to exist:

Arts (Red) (Formerly "Arts and Commerce" until Commerce ceased to be offered at the Junior College Level)
Commerce (Black) (Merged with Arts to become "Arts and Commerce" sometime in the 1990s)
Computing and Pure Science (Green)
Engineering (Blue)
Medicine(Yellow)

Students from RI and RGS remain in their original houses while students from other schools will be evenly allocated into the five houses. The names of the Houses are merged from the five houses each from RI and RGS as follows:

Bayley-Waddle (Yellow)
Buckle-Buckley (Green)
Hadley-Hullett (Purple/Black)
Moor-Tarbet (Red)
Morrison-Richardson (Blue)

Each house is led by a house captain. The house captains are both members of the house committees and the Students' Council. House committee members are elected by members of their respective houses after a brief campaigning period.

Facilities

RJC's new campus in Bishan boasts a 8.65 hectare campus with state-of-the-art facilities, located within 11 blocks. Students spend much time during lectures in lecture theatres and tutorial sessions in the tutorial rooms in Block A, B and C. Arts Students under the Humanities Programme have tutorial sessions in seminar rooms.

Notable facilities include a 850-seater lecture theatre, a Performance Arts Centre and an Indoor Sports Hall. "Chat Rooms" are provided for individual teacher-pupil conferencing. The 3-storey Media Resource Library is also frequented by students, especially during the common test and examination periods. All parts of the campus are linked by a wide network of walkways and ramps. Lifts that serve all floors are available in Blocks C,D and H. Tables have been placed along walkways and other accessible areas for students to study at.

Students' Council

All members of the RJC Students' Council, with a strength of around fifty, are selected through an annual college-wide election. Throughout its one-year term, the council organises projects and functions for the college, such as the orientation, graduation night and open house. The council also rallies student support for important competitions that the college participates in.

Notable alumni

• Chu, Ci
• Choo, Nam Young
• Kwek, Mean Luck
• Puru, Prakash
• Tang, Tee Sing
• Alfian Sa'at

External links

• Official RJC Website (http://www.rjc.edu.sg/)
• Raffles Programme Website (http://www.raffles.sg/)
• Informal RJC Review (http://sky.prohosting.com/gssq/writings/rjc.htm)